OpenAI’s GPT-5.6 drops on Thursday: What’s different about Sol, Terra, and Luna

OpenAI is preparing to release the next generation of AI models. CEO Sam Altman confirmed that the GPT-5.6 series, which includes three new models, will be released on Thursday. In a job Wednesday the tenth.

The main form is called GPT-5.6 Sol. It is supposed to handle deep thinking and agent management tasks. Terra is the moderate middle option in terms of power and cost, while Luna is the fastest and cheapest to operate. It’s an “important step in cybersecurity capabilities” but also contains advanced guardrails for safety, the company says books When defining the typical family in June. OpenAI said Sol makes fewer factual errors or hallucinations than previous OpenAI models.

We don’t yet know the exact availability of these models, other than that all three will be released on Thursday. CNET reached out and did not immediately receive a response from OpenAI. (Disclosure: Ziff Davis, the parent company of CNET, in 2025 filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging that it infringed Ziff Davis’s copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.)

While we knew about GPT-5.6 Since its announcement on June 26OpenAI has deliberately slowed down its release. He loves Anthropic Claude Mythos 5the new GPT models are claimed to be the most advanced AI systems available, and for this reason, AI companies are becoming more reluctant to deploy them.

For the first time, the US government is blocking companies with new requests for government review of AI models before they are widely released.

On June 2, President Donald Trump issued… Executive order Require the Department of Defense to design a system that allows AI developers to voluntarily share access to new frontier models with the government. Government officials have 30 days to review the technology and raise red flags. (This is a different legal standard than the standard under which the government carried out the killing at the time Reviving Claude the Fable 5.)

OpenAI said it had voluntarily granted the government and some “trusted partners” early access. It’s not clear who these partners are and what their expertise is, and OpenAI in June declined to comment on details, referring CNET to the announcement.

A White House official told CNET that the US government had not given OpenAI the green light to release GPT-5.6, nor was it required prior to public release under the executive order. They stressed that all participation is voluntary.

This is a major change in the government’s stance on AI. The Trump administration has long been adamant that regulation would slow innovation and cause the United States to “lose” the global AI race to China. Now, as government oversight of AI intensifies, it is changing the pace of model release and the United States’ technological reputation on the world stage.